[포스트 팬데믹 인터뷰]① Dr. Bertalan Mesco “The spread of digital healthcare is a gift of corona”

Input 2021.01.01 16:00

The’Corona Crisis’, which began when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the’pandemic (a global pandemic)’ of a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) on March 13 last year, changed many parts of daily life. As consumption contracted due to prolonged containment measures and prolonged distance, the economy deteriorated to a level comparable to that of the global financial crisis, and controversy over the impact of the spread of video conferencing and remote classes on productivity and education levels is continuing. In this situation, the advent of vaccines raised questions about how much we could recover from the daily life before the pandemic. We will interview world-renowned experts in the fields of healthcare and consumption, work and artificial intelligence (AI) to highlight the current and future changes caused by the Corona 19 pandemic. [편집자주]

“The Corona 19 pandemic has accelerated the spread and acceptance of digital healthcare technology worldwide. Korea, which has a high penetration rate of portable smart devices and a high-speed Internet, is in the competition to build a customized medical system (based on digital technology). “They have gained an advantage to go ahead. The remaining task is to overcome cultural (psychological) rejection and lay the groundwork for relevant policies to promote adoption of advanced medical technology.”

Dr. Bertalan Mesko, a doctor from Hungary and a digital healthcare expert, is also one of the world’s most promising’futurists’ in the medical field. He graduated from Hungarian’s prestigious medical school at Debrecen University, which boasts a history of 580 years, and received his doctorate in genome research at the same university in 2012 at the age of 28.

However, Dr. Mesko, a science fiction novelist, was more interested in grafting advanced technology into the medical field than genome research. The online blog and social media-based think tank’Medical Futurist’, which he founded the following year for research and consulting in related fields, became his nickname more famous than his real name.

Through’Medical Futurist’, Dr. Mesco predicts the impact of advanced technology development on the medical field and helps doctors, patients, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies prepare for this. He lectured on innovative sustainable medical technology at prestigious universities in the United States such as Harvard University and Stanford University, and the World Health Organization (WHO), and advised on the use of social media-based medical information at the Mayo Clinic, one of the best medical institutions in the United States.

His 2014 book The Guide to the Future of Medicine is widely read as a guide to assess the impact of the combination of advanced technologies such as AI, robot technology, and 3D printers on medicine. I interviewed Dr. Mesco via email.

The coronavirus outbreak has revealed vulnerabilities in public health around the world, including the United States, the world’s No. 1 economy. What is the most urgent need to change in order to protect humanity from another new virus outbreak?

“We need to improve the public health network (between regions and countries) so that it can work well, but it is also important to increase the AI ​​dependence of such a cooperative system. The first warning of the risk of the corona 19 virus, which started in Wuhan, China last year, was the WHO and the United States. It should not be forgotten that it was not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but it was Canada’s AI-based health monitoring platform BlueDot, which already has vast amounts of data that are difficult to analyze with human power without the aid of technology. The importance needs to be recognised at the individual and national level, as’everyday’ is bound to cease if it is overloaded or does not work properly for any reason.”

‘Blue Dot’ is an AI-based algorithm. It analyzes data collected through media reports or animal and plant disease networks to warn of the risk of infectious diseases. It was on January 9 last year that the WHO warned of the danger of the novel coronavirus, which has spread around the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China. The CDC announced the presence of the virus on January 6, three days before WHO. However, Blue Dot announced the spread of the “Wuhan virus” on December 31, 2019, ahead of them, according to Wired, a media specializing in information technology (IT).

Fear spread that many jobs would disappear with the proliferation of AI. The medical field would not be an exception.
“AI will not replace human doctors, but doctors who use AI will replace doctors who don’t.”

Why?
“Because the doctor’s treatment is not a simple task that is’linear’. For example, just because I have all the data and information about someone, I can’t treat him or treat him. It is a much more complex and diverse task than data acquisition. Since AI-induced medical system innovation is progressing at such a rapid pace, it is necessary to monitor the relevant changes well in order to make good use of it for both medical practitioners and (potential) patients. There is.”

How should the medical school curriculum to nurture future doctors be different?
“As the importance of regular health care is newly recognized, the relationship between doctors and patients is transforming into an’equal partnership’. Along with this, the role of digital technology in health care has also grown. In medical school, students are encouraged to adapt to such changes. ‘Medical Futurist’ has come up with several principles in this regard: encouraging medical students to interact closely with patients from the outset, using advanced technologies for learning and encouraging them to share new technologies with each other. We will make sure to use the technology that future patients will use, etc. Understanding and using digital technology is fundamental.”

Do you think the corona crisis will change the physical space of the hospital?
“In order to prevent the spread of Corona 19, some changes were inevitable in the spatial structure of the hospital. Checking the wearing of a mask at the entrance and measuring the body temperature, etc., make the work easier, and help the medical staff, staff, and patients’distance’ from the inside. This change may last a long time due to the prolonged coronavirus outbreak, but it will not be noticeable that the hospital building will be larger than it is now. Clinical information such as treatment and prescriptions, medication records and test results in real time This is because the center of gravity of health care is shifting in the direction of managing it.”

Will virtual augmented reality (VR/AR) or Internet of Things (IoT) become a game changer that will change the game in the medical field?
“I don’t think the power of individual technology to change the future of the medical field will be so great. There are two other things that I see as the driving force of change. First, patients are patients. The role of patients as a subject of supplying medical data using advanced technology. The second is the power of networks built by linking individual technologies, which can be called “Internet of healthy things”, which is great for disease prevention and early response. Will play a role.”

‘What if the medical community has achieved any results in the process of responding to the Corona 19 pandemic?
“If you’dare’ to find the positive influence of the pandemic, you can tell that the speed of dissemination and acceptance of digital healthcare technology has increased tremendously. If it was not for the pandemic, it would have taken a long time and a lot of effort for persuasion remotely. Medical, home diagnostic kits, and smart healthcare sensors have spread at an unprecedented rate, because there were few options to overcome the unprecedented corona crisis.”

As the change is quick, there will be concerns about side effects.
“Compared to the speed of digital technology diffusion, cultural (perception) changes are too slow. Even in countries that have embraced telemedicine, there are many cases in which both patients and doctors have difficulty building communication systems based on mutual trust. You will have to work hard to overcome it.”

Isn’t it the income gained in the process of responding to the Corona 19 pandemic, activating cooperation for the development of vaccines and treatments?
“After the pandemic, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare companies began to cooperate with each other, sharing data and manpower. This is unprecedented in the history of medicine. If you maintain such a cooperative system, if a new virus emerges in the future, it is more than now. Vaccines could be produced at a much faster rate, and the only way to upgrade this further is to streamline the data supply, which requires more people to understand that data sharing can return to a universal benefit. Of course, the development of the data analysis technology used is also important.”

How do you see the situation in Korea?
“Korea, where the penetration rate of portable smart devices is high and high-speed Internet is tightly laid, has an advantage to stay ahead in the competition to build a customized medical system (based on digital technology). The remaining task is to overcome cultural (psychological) rejection and lay the foundation for related policies to promote the acceptance of advanced medical technologies such as telemedicine.”

In Korea, only telemedicine for consultation between medical personnel and medical personnel is allowed under the current law. It is all at the level that you can make a reservation with a smartphone and pay with a card you have registered in advance. They are opposing the amendment of the law for the full-scale introduction of telemedicine, saying that the medical safety of telemedicine in the medical field is poor and that only large companies, large hospitals, and private insurance companies are doubled. For this reason, domestic telemedicine is difficult to access except for pilot projects centered on island areas.